for it three years earlier), and in 1996 the
T ate acquired his "Pharmacy," a room-
size installation of colorfully stocked
medical cabinets. Most of the Y.B.A.s are
well represented there now, and Hirst's
current retrospective, at Tate Modern,
has been drawing four thousand visitors a
day-along with the usual complement
of scathing reviews. "I have no doubt at
all that Hirst's early work is very impor-
tant," Serota told me in May. "Time will
tell whether it survives, but I believe it
. 11 "
WI .
The bias against contemporary art
was breaking down, and the Tate had be-
come an active force in the new cultural
climate. Dennis Stevenson, the chairman
of its board of trustees, was just a year
older than Serota. A Scottish -born en-
trepreneur with a gift for imaginative
thinking, he had joined the board in
1989 and was simultaneously named its
chairman, but Margaret Thatcher, who
didn't care for his leftist views, rejected
the appointment. (Government approval
is required for Tate board members.)
Thatweekend, Serota spoke to one of his
trustees, who had a word with Tim Bell,
Thatcher's media adviser. Bell told the
P.M., not quite truthfully, that Steven-
son's views had "mellowed," and also sug-
gested that having him chair the Tate
might keep him off other, more power-
ful boards. On Monday, Serota was
notified that Thatcher had withdrawn
her veto. "That was one of the best things
I've ever done for the Tate," Serota told
me. Stevenson worked to strengthen Se-
rotà s authority vis-à-vis the board, espe-
cially regarding acquisitions, and their
close working relationship with Alex
Beard, the Tate's young financial direc-
tor, turned the Tate into a modern insti-
tution. "The Tate became a much better
run, better organized Tate," Stevenson
told me. "Nick is very brave in doing
what he thinks is right. He wasn't natu-
rally good at asking for money, but he's
grown much better at that."
Faced by rising costs, skyrocketing art
prices, and stagnant or declining govern-
ment support, the T ate and other muse-
ums were turning to the private sector.
"Initially, we went after corporations, to
sponsor exhibitions and other projects,"
Serota told me, "but when it came to the
capital campaign for Tate Modern it had
to be from individuals and foundations."
Britain, unlike the United States, does not
60 THE NEW YORKER, JULY 2, 2012
THE LETTERS OF GEORGE KENNAN AND JOHN LUKACS,
INTERSPERSED WITH SOME OF MY DREAMS
You asked me about myself: In May
I remarried, three and a half years
after I had lost my unique wife.
Depression, at least in my case,
has much to do with my physical
and psychic state of the moment.
Mywords are carved on gravel stones, each about the size
of an oyster, and must be fed in the proper sequence
into a gadget like a water gun.
Those striking lines from John Donne correspond
exactly with something that I read
by Kierkegaard
some time ago: in which he says that Truth
is given to God alone: but what is given to us
is the pursuit of truth.
My gravel words drift slowly through the water
toward a sort of muzzle that spits them out,
and that is how I speak.
For the second time, I am blessed in having found
a charming, warm-hearted, intelligent woman,
sparlding with esprit.
In a Pennsylvania town the bedframes are made of iron,
the dolls are still porcelain, and the trolleys
pulled by long lines of white horses in single file.
It is a rainy Sunday morning, and I have asked our guests
to excuse me while I do some writing. I, too,
sense the imminent arrival of great calamities.
allow most individuals to take tax write-
offs for gifts to museums. However, the in-
stitution can reclaim the tax paid on the
donated amount, substantially increasing
the value of the gift. Serota and Stevenson,
working together "like a couple of pirates,"
as Angela described it, made very effective
use of this provision. "A significant pro-
portion of the eighty-five million pounds
we raised for Tate Modern came from
foundations and trusts established by very
rich people-Sainsburys, Westons, Vivien
Duffield," Serota told me.
Following his own recommendations
in "Grasping the Nettle," Serota com-
peted, much more aggressively than his
predecessors had, for works of modern
and contemporary art. He brought in key
works by Joseph Beuys, Lucian Freud,
Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, Francis
Bacon, David Hockney, and Damien
Hirst, many of them by donation, and he
led a fund drive in 2007 that raised [4.95
million for Turner's late watercolor "The
Blue Rigi," an acknowledged masterpiece
that would have left the country if the
drive had failed. Shortly before Tate
Modern opened, Serota asked Charles
Saatchi to consider giving it ten important
works from his own collection. Saatchi
countered with an offer of eighty works,
"only one or two of which," as Serota de-
scribed them to me, "you, today, would
recognize." Serota and some members of